September 28, 1939 – World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union partition Poland
On September 28, 1939, as their joint invasion of Poland was winding down, Germany and the Soviet Union, acting on Stalin’s proposal, agreed to make changes totheir respective spheres of influence as set forth in the Molotov-Ribbentroppact. In the revised treaty, Germany relinquished to the Soviet Union itsclaim to a sphere of influence on Lithuaniain exchange for the Soviet Union relinquishing to Germanyits sphere of influence to sections of central Poland,including Warsaw and Lublin. On October 8, 1939, Germanyannexed western Poland,including Danzig, the Polish Corridor, and Silesia,and established the German-run General Governorate in the rest of theGerman-assigned territory in Poland.
(Taken from Invasion of Poland – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe: Vol. 6)
The Soviet Union also annexed its share of Polishterritories, partitioning them among its subordinate states Belarus, Ukraineand Lithuania,and implementing Sovietization policies in ethnic Polish-majority regions.
In German-controlled Poland, which was extended to includeall of Poland after German forces captured the Soviet section of Poland in theearly stages of Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union)in June 1941, Nazi Germany implemented policies aimed at achieving Lebensraum,where ethnic Germans would settle in the former Polish territories which thenwould be completely Germanized politically, economically, socially, andculturally. As Lebensraum entaileddisplacing the native populations, Generalplan Ost (General Plan East) wasinitiated in a series of programs of depopulating, resettling, or otherwiseeliminating the Polish population from lands that were destined to become fullyGerman. Central to Nazi doctrine was theconcept of German racial superiority, and that German ethnic purity was to bemaintained and not tainted by the blood of races which the Nazis classified asinferior (Untermensch, or sub-human), which included Poles and other Slavicpeoples, Jews, and Roma (gypsies), among others.
The colonization and full Germanization of Polishterritories were to be accomplished in stages over many years. But of more urgency to the Germans was thefate of Polish Jews, whose eradication was determined in January 1942 throughthe euphemistically called “Final Solution”. In the aftermath of the Polish campaign, German authorities segregatedthe three million Polish Jews, who were then forced into the hundreds of Jewishghettos quickly set up across Poland. In the ensuing period, Polish and other Jewsacross Europe were transported by train tospecially constructed labor, concentration, and extermination camps where themass executions ultimately were carried out. Aside from Jews, Slavs, and Roma, Nazi extermination policies alsotargeted the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals, politicalopponents, communists, prisoners of war, resistance fighters, and other groups.
In Poland,as a result of the German occupation, some six million Poles perished, or 20%of the total population. Of this number,three million were Jews, of whom 90% were killed.
